More than 600 homes have been evacuated in Florida’s Bay County as a rapidly spreading wildfire that has raged since Friday afternoon continues to resist containment efforts.
By Saturday afternoon, 24 hours after the Adkins Avenue fire in Panama City Beach, Fla., started, it had burned more than 1,400 acres and was 30 percent contained, the Florida Forest Service said. said on Twitter.
More evacuation orders have come in since Friday. In a statement Saturday morning, the Bay County Sheriff’s Office said on Facebook that residents of neighboring Bylsma Manor Estates needed to “pack up their personal belongings and leave.”
The fire was caused when someone set fire to garbage in the backyard, Bay County spokeswoman Valerie Sale said Saturday.
On Friday, Bay County issued an evacuation order that is still in effect. A ban on arson has also been issued in the area and neighboring counties, Ms. Sale said. On Friday evening, Gov. Ron DeSantis issued an executive order declaring a state of emergency in Bay County.
Sale estimated that at least two houses were completely destroyed and 12 damaged. She said that number is likely to rise.
According to her, there were no casualties or deaths. Highland Park Baptist Church in Panama City has opened a temporary shelter for evacuees.
At 1:59 p.m. Friday, the Bay County Emergency Management Department received a call that the fire was getting out of control. For more than a day, several county departments have been involved in efforts to contain the blaze, Ms. Sale said.
According to a post on the Bay County Emergency Service Facebook page, more than 200 firefighters from Bay County and across the Panhandle are “working on the ground to establish containment lines and protective structures.” The Florida Forest Service employs 70 firefighters who operate bulldozers, tractors, engines and other heavy equipment on the ground.
There is no estimate of when the fire will be fully contained, Ms Sale said, as conditions in the area make it difficult to control the flames.
“The problem we’re dealing with is that it’s very, very dry and very windy here, and the humidity is very low,” Ms Sale explained. Bay County also has debris from Hurricane Michael in 2018, she said.
“We have thousands of acres of trees that have since died and withered,” she added.
The National Weather Service in Tallahassee said it was likely to reduced visibility due to fog and smoke from the fire and warned that dry conditions have caused a “surge” of wildfires in the state.
On Saturday afternoon, hours after the Florida Forest Service warned that “fire danger levels have been elevated statewide,” the agency posted an update on twitter it is said that there have been 148 active wildfires across the state in an area of 7,100 acres.